Rebecca Dylla-Spears is a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). She holds degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin (B.S.) and the University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D.). Her research interests include materials, manufacturing, and processing science related to a variety of national security missions and applications. She currently serves as the Deputy Chemistry Lead for the W80-4 life extension program and as Deputy for the Advanced Manufacturing Development program. These efforts span a range of materials, manufacturing methods, and characterization approaches aimed at ensuring the safety and security of the nation’s stockpile. Rebecca is a subject matter expert in glass additive manufacturing and oversees a research portfolio aimed at using 3D printing to create new optical materials and glass components with tailorable structure and material properties.
Rebecca spent the first 12 years of her career at LLNL supporting programs for the NIF & Photon Science (NIF&PS) directorate, where she gained experience with optical fabrication, glasses, crystals, coatings, and assemblies. She served as group leader for advanced optical materials and processing science and technology in NIF&PS, where she also led and managed the optics supply, processing, and R&D efforts for the DPAL and Barbera laser programs. Previously, Rebecca served as a subject matter expert for growing cryogenic, single-crystalline deuterium-tritium fuel layers for fusion experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF). She helped develop processes for fabrication of specialized laser optics used in the HAPLS laser now used at the ELI laser facility and contributed to optical polishing science efforts, including developing methods for slurry stabilization and filtration.